Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 234]

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1943]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

231

Dr. Milan Novak, Associate Professor of Bacteriology and Public Health in the College of Medicine, has devised a new blood and plasma filter. T h e Committee finds that neither the University's materials and facilities nor the University's time were used, and not a cent of University money was spent in developing the device. The Committee finds further that the device is very simple and does not promise any substantial commercial value; that the returns, if the device is patentable—some of the members think this doubtful—will be nominal and will not justify the expenditure of a substantial sum in order to obtain a patent; that, however, the device may be useful in the war and that it is important that Dr. Novak file an application for a patent as promptly as possible in order, as he puts it, to prevent commercial exploitation to the detriment of the discovery and its possible uses in the present war. H e has written an article, publication of which he is withholding, pending action on this matter. T h e Committee recommends that the discovery be released to Dr. Novak. I concur in these recommendations. O n m o t i o n of M r . A d a m s , t h i s m a t t e r w a s r e f e r r e d t o t h e C o m mittee on Patents (see page 242)PATENTABLE DISCOVERIES BY MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY STAFF (6) As a result of the discussion at the meeting of the Board on December 15 of the policy of releasing to members of the University staff discoveries made on their own time, I requested the Faculty Committee on Patents to consider this question and formulate a declaration of policy for consideration by the Board. T h e Committee offers the following: 1. In general, all patentable discoveries made by staff members are the property of the University, and should be assigned to it. 2. A staff member who has any part in conducting a research or investigation which, in whole or in part, is under the financial sponsorship of any person, corporation, or agency outside the University shall report all such discoveries promptly to the head of his department or to the dean of his college, and assign all applications for patents thereon to the University, unless the discoveries be released to the staff member concerned by the Board of Trustees. 3. Discoveries made outside the line or lines of investigation or study which a staff member carries on as an employee of the University, and in the development of which University materials or equipment are not used, need not be assigned to the University but shall be regarded as the property of the discoverer; provided that no discovery shall be released without formal approval by the Board of Trustees. Any discoveries falling within the provisions of this paragraph shall be promptly reported by the staff member to the head of his department, who, in turn, shall report the matter to the dean of the college with a full statement of all pertinent facts. This statement does not involve any real departure from the policy heretofore pursued by the University which the Faculty Committee on Patents has sought to apply in all cases. T h e Committee's attitude has been that, generally, patentable discoveries by staff members belong to the University and should be assigned to it. In the case of research sponsored by an outside agency, the policy has been explicit. In the case of discoveries made by staff members on their own time and developed with their own resources, the University has in some cases released such discoveries to the staff members for patenting at their own expense if they so desire. The only departure in the above statement from existing policy, if there be any, is in paragraph 3. If this policy be adopted by the Board, all discoveries made by staff members within the line or lines of investigation carried on by them as employees of the University would be assigned to the University regardless of any claim that a discovery was conceived by a staff member while not on duty. As to discoveries outside of the regular lines of investigation pursuant to his employment, a staff member, in the judgment of the Faculty